


Corvus Oculum Corvi Non Eruit

by Nyodrite



Series: Leonis Black | Leon Harper [2]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: And pokes a hole in the Fourth Wall, Champion!Leon, Gen, Goblet of Fire AU, He also manipulates Cedric into friendship, Leon has an internal monologue, SI/OC, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Slytherin!Leon, sudden attack Serious, time skip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7849543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyodrite/pseuds/Nyodrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leon Harper: First Year Hogwartian and Internal Monologue-er. In Which Leon Is Sorted Into Slytherin And Everyone Believes He’s A Muggle-Born<br/>.</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Leon thought as he sat. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This isn’t really expected. I mean, yeah, Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin once before but that was back during the first incarnation- every time after I was Hufflepuff. How’d I go from Slytherin to Hufflepuff? And the Slytherin apparently.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He glanced around and noted how he was avoided by his Housemates like some kind of deceased creature, stared at like some never before seen </span>
  <em>
    <span>thing</span>
  </em>
  <span> since no one had heard of the name Harper before so he </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span> be a muggle-born and how did he end up in Slytherin. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Should I tell them that I’m a Black? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Leon wondered as he stuffed a bread roll into his mouth. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mmm, bread roll. Nah, it’ll do Hogwarts good to have a ‘muggle-born’ Slytherin and I never really cared if I were insulted. </span>
  </em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Corvus oculum corvi non eruit : A raven does not pluck out the eyes of another raven

_ Well,  _ Leon thought as he sat.  _ This isn’t really expected. I mean, yeah, Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin once before but that was back during the first incarnation- every time after I was Hufflepuff. How’d I go from Slytherin to Hufflepuff? And the Slytherin apparently. _

He glanced around and noted how he was avoided by his Housemates like some kind of deceased creature, stared at like some never before seen  _ thing _ since no one had heard of the name Harper before so he  _ must _ be a muggle-born and how did he end up in Slytherin.  _ Should I tell them that I’m a Black?  _ Leon wondered as he stuffed a bread roll into his mouth.  _ Mmm, bread roll. Nah, it’ll do Hogwarts good to have a ‘muggle-born’ Slytherin and I never really cared if I were insulted.  _

_ Curses and Hexes may be a problem though.  _ He acknowledged.  _ Bill Weasley’s Head Boy though, surely a future Curse-Breaker will know how to help a defenseless muggle-born firstie? Note to Ce- Oh. Wrong ‘verse. Nevermind. Note to self: Befriend Cedric Diggory. Second Note to self: Ask Bill Weasley about defensive and protective magic. _

“Thank you, Darkstar.” Leon told Snape, earning a half-sneer and half-bemused look, as he took his schedule.  _ Hm. Herbology and Transfiguration on Monday, DADA, History and Charms on Tuesday, Herbology and History on Wednesday, DADA, History and Transfiguration on Thursday then Potions and Charms on Friday. _

_ Well.  _ Leon snatched one last roll before standing.  _ It’s sunday so I have two days to get started on my notes to self. Now! To go bug- um.  _ Befriend _ Cedric! _

“Hey!” He grinned as he seated himself across from the first year Hufflepuff. The table at large paused,  _ watching _ in a kind of cautious bemusement over his presence, and Cedric in particular looked a bit like a startled dog that hadn’t yet gotten to snarling at the offender. “I don’t think I thanked you yesterday for helping me get onto the platform, so thanks.”

_ See?  _ He tried projecting to the table as he snagged a green apple and took a bite,  _ I might be in Slytherin but I’m just a harmless firstie- a muggle-born one at that. _

Cedric blinked but said, “It’s not- there’s an old law from the Witch Burning era since some muggle-borns turned around and told a bunch of people how to get to the Platform- people died when the mob showed up. The law has it so muggle-raised kids aren’t told how to get on beforehand, they’re supposed to find their way but some families patrol both Platform 9a and 9b to help out- my family just happened to be one of those families. There’s really no need to thank me.”

“Maybe not. But I’m thanking you anyways.” Leon said, taking another bite from his apple. After a beat of silence, where the Hufflepuff slowly went back to eating, he asked, “Glad to be in Hufflepuff?”

The pureblood swallowed then said, “Yes. It’s very...welcoming- I’m glad to be here….what about you?”

“Mm.” He shrugged, letting the apple core drop to his plate. “It’s different, certainly. I still have my own room but it’s bigger with a bathroom connected and from what I can tell most just stay in their rooms...they don’t really talk to anyone they haven’t met before coming to Hogwarts.”

_ C’mon,  _ Leon thought as he watched the apple core shimmer then disappear.  _ Everyone knows Hufflepuffs are the ‘nice guys’- you won’t turn away a  _ **_lonely_ ** _ muggle-born first year, right? Not even if he’s a Slytherin. _

“Oh.” He cast a quick glance and saw the Cedric seemed sympathetic- the older Hufflepuffs had also softened- but he kept his head down, focusing on his plate- tearing a bread roll and amusing himself with watching the pieces disappear. “Hufflepuffs spend a lot of time in our common room...I-...do you want to go explore the castle?”

Leon’s head snapped up and he blinked once,  _ twice _ , then beamed. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

_ Now I only have to get the Weasley to teach me. _ He thought.


	2. Leonis Black: Not Actually A Muggle-Born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which Hogwarts Finds Out That Leon Is Not In Fact A Muggle-Born. - **Year:** _1994 - "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire"_
> 
> .
> 
>  _This,_ Leon acknowledged as he suppressed the urge to shift under his friend's stare. _Wasn't really thought out well._
> 
> "You attacked me."
> 
> The words were flat and so unlike Cedric that he almost flinched. "Yes."
> 
> "... _why?_ " the seventeen year old sounded a bit like a lost child- like something had hurt him and yet he had no clue as to why, how it could have possibly caused him harm.

_This,_ Leon acknowledged as he suppressed the urge to shift under his friend's stare. _Wasn't really thought out well._

"You attacked me."

The words were flat and so unlike Cedric that he almost flinched. "Yes."

"... _why?_ " the seventeen year old sounded a bit like a lost child- like something had hurt him and yet he had no clue as to why, how it could have possibly caused him harm.

And Leon once again thought, _this really wasn't thought out well._

"Remember when I took you to the Forbidden Corridor in Third Year to switch out a rock with the one we'd been working on over the previous two years?" Leon prompted, continuing their walk to the Great Hall. "Or where I had us learning how to transfigure roosters in Third Year along with a charm to get them crowing and then had you carry around a crowing rooster in Fourth Year- killing a Basilisk? Or how in Fourth Year I bullied you into learning both the Patronus and Animagus Revealer spells only for them to just so _happen_ to be useful in Fifth Year when Dementors appeared and the youngest male Weasley's pet turned out to be a thought dead animagus?"

Cedric blinked then managed, "...you don't believe in Divination."

"I don't believe the _professor_ of Divination." Leon corrected because centaurs were pretty accurate and then _Luna Lovegood_.

"So, what, you're a Seer?" the Diggory questioned.

He shrugged. "Of a kind I suppose. The point is that I _knew_ these things were going to happen and, whatever action I took, have I _ever_ done something that truly, seriously _harmed_ you, Cedric Diggory?"

"No." the Hufflepuff said. "At least not until _now._ "

Leon winced. "Yes. Well. That was bad planning on my part."

"Why then did you feel like _attacking me_ made me _safer_?" Cedric demanded, stopping before the doors to the Great Hall.

He twitched, glancing away but finally said, when the other didn't so much a _blink_ , "You were going to enter the Tournament. If you had entered, you would have died." It was said in that same carefully cheery, casual, devil-may-care tone he'd used they came across first a Cerberus then a Basilisk. "Our DADA prof. is a DE in disguise, ya know?"

"DE-...?" the Hufflepuff wondered before his eyes widened. " _Death Eater?_ Then- Leon- we have to tell someone-!"

"Do you know what happens to those who know the future, Cedric?" Leon asked before answering. "They are kept as _pets_. It's why centaurs withdrew, formed herds and became warriors- they're to dangerous to be kept as assets. Why the Lovegoods all deliberately come off as crazy- maybe they said somethings that eventually came to pass but it was mere coincidence, no one _that_ crazy could be a Seer. If it comes to it, I have neither the Lovegoods' nor the centaurs reputation to remain as I am- and, Cedric, I an _no one's pet_."

His friend swallowed. "B-but what about Professor Dumbl-"

"Professor Trelawney." Leon rebutted. "I don't doubt that she has made a true prediction before, most likely directly to the Headmaster, but it was likely only then- or she'd have garnered more interest and brought in to the MoM for a...hm...job offer so good she _couldn't_ refuse. Logically," He mused as if he didn't already _know_ but knowing the future and the past were two different dangers, one of which he didn't _need_ to expose his friend to. "The prediction she made was a very important one, important enough for Professor Dumbledore to keep her close even through the fraudulence she partook in through the years. It's the difference between a chained dog and one allowed to roam the backyard, I'd rather not be either dog."

Again Cedric swallowed, this time harsher- dryer and once more he mourned how very little thought he'd put into his plan that it'd lead to _this_. "Alright...but what about the Tournament and DADA professor? Someone could get hurt."

"That's the nature of things, my dear badger." Leon told the other lightly, changing from 'Watson' at the last moment because it really wasn't the time for such references, then more seriously said. "Frankly. _I don't care_. You are my friend and you are safe. But, if it will put you at ease, I _know_ that none of the seventeen year olds- or eighteen, I suppose- in the Great Hall will meet their end in the Tournament." A tug called his attention and he moved past his friend with a smile. "Let's go in now, yeah?"

He opened the door as Professor Dumbledore read out, " _Leonis Black!_ "

"Here I am Headmaster!" Leon called, waving his arm cheerfully.

"Mr. Harper?" the Headmaster queried.

"That too." He said cheerfully, ignoring how Cedric was clutching his shoulder tightly. "Funny thing that, I'm apparently a Black bastard- I'm used to Leon Harper though so I kept the name though I use Leonis Black in an official capacity so I suppose Leon Harper is a nickname?"

Professor Dumbledore seemed amused while the student body at large seemed in a state of shock. "I see. Well, Mr. Harper, it would seem as if you are Hogwarts' Champion."

"An honor!" Leon cried dramatically, covering Cedric's hissed, _"What did you **do?** "_

 _Kept you safe._ He thought. _And everyone else stumbling into a mess they aren't prepared for._

That mostly ignored part of him rose up, almost laughing hysterically, _how the hell are we going to face a **dragon**?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa. This ended up much more serious then I thought it was going to be when I started writing it. Honestly, I thought there was going to be a paintball fight .


	3. A Deal With A Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Charlie,_
> 
> _If you haven't heard by now, I am now Hogwarts champion (along with Harry because someone is clearly enough of an A-hole to enter a fourteen year old). I'm afraid that I am not writing just to inform you but to ask a favor- for the usual fare? I know you work with dragons so I, since I decided to add to my shield skills, wanted to know what kind of shield do you use against fire?_

> _Charlie,_
> 
> _If you haven't heard by now, I am now Hogwarts champion (along with Harry because someone is clearly enough of an A-hole to enter a fourteen year old). I'm afraid that I am not writing just to inform you but to ask a favor- for the usual fare? I know you work with dragons so I, since I decided to add to my shield skills, wanted to know what kind of shield do you use against fire?_
> 
> _\- Leon(is)_
> 
> _p.s. Can you write Harry too about your answer, I think he's still too far into the "freaking out" stage to actively prepare and I doubt he'd listen to a "slimy, evil Slytherin" who's also his competition._
> 
> _p.p.s. I came out._

" _Really_?" Cedric raised an eyebrow at the last line, "That _had_ to be added?"

Leon, amused, shrugged. "Couldn't help myself. Anyway, I was thinking of writing to Tonks and Bill also to throw off suspicions. I'm going to be talking to Flitwick and McGonagall also." He decided.

"Why?" his friend wondered, tying the letter to his owl before sending Holmes off.

"The first task is dragons," he answered easily, "If it gets out that I specifically asked Charlie, a _dragon handler_ , how to shield against them _without_ also asking others for help, the best case scenario is that people will think I cheated. The worse, that I somehow _knew_ and will then start watching me - looking into things I did in the past that, while alone can be coincidental, but together is downright suspicious." Then added, "Also, I might not be friends with Harry, but I'm not so much of an asshole as to allow a kid to go into this kind of thing blind - he may not accept help from _me_ , but that doesn't mean I can't help him survive."

Cedric nodded though his friend looked far too solemn for his tastes, making him regret anew that Leon had to tell him the truth.

It wasn't that he _liked_ lying to Cedric, there were few things he disliked more in fact, but Leon would have rather lied to his friend for the rest of their lives then tell him the truth. Because, now Leon was directly responsible for the loss of some of Cedric's innocence - the kind that had given the teen faith in the goodwill of others, in the ideal that those in authority would do whatever they could to protect you and wouldn't _use_ you for their own goals. He was responsible for the lack of sleep the other was getting when those thoughts kept him up at night, for the way the Hufflepuff threw himself into learning how to fight when before all he cared about was defense, for the way Cedric was now _suspicious_ \- of people, their words and actions.

Leon would be lying if he said he didn't hate himself a bit for what the truth did to his friend.

"Now!" He clapped, forcibly pushing away the train of thought. "To the warrior queen!" Cedric, as Leon intended, choked on laughter at how he referred to Professor McGonagall.

The first thing that came out of the professor's mouth was a flat, "I'm not helping you cheat."

While his friend seemed to be caught between indignation and mortification, his smile didn't so much as twitch. "Wouldn't dream of besmirching your honor by even _thinking_ about asking you to help me do such a thing." He reassured her but, from the look he got, was less then reassuring so he moved onto his request, "I know the rules prevent you from helping me learn anything for the tournament, but I was wondering if you would have any recommendation on where to look for shield charms that might be useful?"

Leon glanced at Cedric and added, "Also do you know where I might find Miss Granger?"

Professor McGonagall's eyes gained a glint, "Yes, Mister Harper, I believe I can be of assistance to you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "In case you missed the byplay at the end," Leon said in a whisper, "I implied that any help my warrior queen would give me, I would pass on to Hermione who would in turn pass it on to Harry."
> 
> Cedric peered at his friend, "Why are you whispering and _who_ are you talking to?"
> 
> For a beat, Leon stared at his friend in silence before darting away.


	4. A Truce of Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know," Leon mused, "At some point the person in the chair will write length chapters...." 
> 
> A pause.
> 
> He shrugged, "But not today."

Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her year and best friend to the boy-who-lived, had Leon at wand point, the wood of her wand pressing insistently at his neck. Beside him Cedric was already bristling, a second a way from whipping out his own wand and hexing. Which, given they were trying to play  _nice_ , was a terrible idea - though it was sweet that his friend was willing to cause harm in his defense.

 _Nothing says friendship like bodily harming someone whom attacked you,_ Leon sighed dreamily then winced. Cedric twitched.  _Okay, no, I better do something before a blood feud or something starts._

"Are cute little lion cubs  _always_ so suspicious?" He said and the fourth year, already looking harried and a bit sleep-deprived,  _snarled_ at him.

Well, then.

"Hey, hey," Leon added hastily when it seemed like the girl would  _bite_ him or something, "We're here to help."

" _Right_."

It was awe-inspiring how one girl could pack so much sass and sarcasm into one word.

"We are!" he insisted, "Professor McGonagall gave us reference books that might be useful on the condition that we share with you so your little friend could benefit from them also."

The girl wavered but didn't remove her wand, instead glancing at Cedric who manage to project enough of the  _honest Hufflepuff_ image when he said "We are here to help." that she finally,  _finally_ , lowered her wand.

Honestly, Leon had been starting to worry about a permanent mark or something.  _Definitely a bruise,_ he mused, rubbing the spot.

Hermione nodded once, decisively, "Tell me."


End file.
